Amen. Good morning. Thank you for tuning us in for our Bible Studies for Life. I'm Darrell Bailey, Servants for Christ. As we continue a new series, it's all about Jesus out of the book of Luke. Jesus came to deliver the good news of salvation for all people. If you have your Bibles close by, turn with us over to Luke chapter 3, verses 1 through 6, Luke chapter four, verses 14 through 21. And here, when we look at our outline over on the left side of our screen, we'll see that John prepared the way for Jesus's mission in Luke chapter three, verses one through six. Isaiah prophesied the purpose of Jesus's mission as he goes into the synagogues and opens up Isaiah 61 and begins to give us the message from the old prophet for a current time and place. And then thirdly we talk about that Jesus declared that he is the long-awaited Messiah in Luke chapter 4 verses 20 and 21. the mission, the purpose, and the Messiah. Now, it's been four years since the global pandemic. I mean, it rocked this place. It changed everything and many things, and many things that we look to for granted were taken away. And while we're coming back to a place of somewheres of normal, even though that some people here and there are still coming down with COVID, while we come back to that place and get some things like work habits and shopping experiences that have really changed permanently over time. There's one thing that's never changed at any time or place or year and that is Jesus Christ. Here in this study, this series, it's all about Jesus. We're talking about taking a walk with Jesus through the gospel of the book of Luke. And we'll discover and we will be reminded just how important and central Jesus is to how we live each day. Many ways the way that we do church has changed in the recent years. In our ever-changing culture, you've got to learn how to adapt and change with it. and to overcome. And it's important to consider what makes the church the church. And so we'll be looking at this as we continue on in our series from the book of Luke. It's all about Jesus. Now, as we go forward, each and every one of us in our study, we see the battle of Antietam. and through that we realize that the soldiers found a little package in a clover field south of Frederick, Maryland on September the 13th, 1862. Here when we look back in history we see that it was a row of paper wrapped around three cigars. Though they were initially excited to find the cigars, the real excitement came when they read the paper that they were wrapped in. It was a copy of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders number 191, and it detailed the general's plan of attack to evade Maryland. The paper made its way through the chain of command, and it was instrumental in the Battle of Antiem, which ended Lee's first invasion of the North. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. That is a circumstance that we look at in the mission that took place during the Civil War. That the chance that this took place, when it did, here we see the influence of the design and what it did. When we look at Jesus, we find someone that stumbled into his role, but no, instead he perfectly orchestrated and intentionally did everything with a mission from God. There was nothing mishap about it. Jesus was in control. He knew everything that he was going to do. And as we look at these maps and these old pictures of a battle from way back in the 1800s of the Civil War, When we look at what's transpiring at that time, at the right place, we're reminded of how God works today. And that reminds us about the mission of Jesus. Here, as we look, as Frederick Maryland on September the 13th, 1862, right in this battle area of Antigua, that transpired, that by mishap they had found a paper wrapped around three cigars that would tell the plans of the attack that would take place. Remember, it's all about Jesus. Obey God and deny self. And as we examine the life and the work of Jesus, we're called to respond to who he is by denying ourselves, trusting him, Following him daily the mission of Jesus turn with us there while you're turning over there I'm gonna get us ready for just a little bit of worship because there's nothing like worship Even though that it's Sunday school. You know a lot of times we do Wednesday nights, and we do I We do our Sunday morning because the piano players are not there, the song leader's not there, but worship ought to be a part of everyday occurrences of our life. It ought to be when we're driving to work that we worship. It ought to be while we're on our lunch break or any time in our mind that we can worship God. And I want to promote that. And so I'm glad. Let me hit a verse of an old song real quick. As you're taking your Bibles over to Luke chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 and Luke chapter 4 verses 14 through 21, find your way over there. I'll give a little time as we worship a little bit with you this morning. In an old song, draw me near. I know I'm no songster, but I just want to worship the Lord. I am thine, O Lord. I have heard thy voice and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious side. There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with thee. Draw me nearer Nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. Amen. Amen. I'm glad that we can make a joyful noise no matter how our voice is. Here the passage of Luke chapter 3 describes the mission of John the Baptist. John was called by God to prepare the way for Jesus and to proclaim the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He preached in the wilderness and he called people to turn from their sins and prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah. You know, I believe that when you teach Sunday school and when you do Bible study, you ought to at least stick to the Scripture. It's good to tell all kinds of illustrations and all the laughter, but if you get away from the Word of God, you've got away from the truth. Why are you standing in front of a crowd trying to talk about all of these other things, and you're deviating from the Word of God. Stick to the mission. It's all about Jesus. And so sometimes John's mission seemed impossible on a human level, but it was made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit working in him. The Spirit enabled John the Baptist to boldly proclaim the message of repentance and to fulfill his role as the forerunner of Jesus. For Luke, And so I'm glad later on as he takes the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue and declares that the scripture is fulfilled in the hearing as they look at him. Let's move forward and begin to get into the wonderful word of God. Lord, we pray over the scripture and we ask your blessing upon it. May it find a lodging place in the hearts of the many that are listening to the Bible studies for life and the studies that are so richly produced by gracious writers and teachers of the word. And now Lord, we're just a voice That's relaying the message of those authors and of those Sunday school teachers that all of us together working may give glory and honor to Jesus Christ. That's our entire purpose and mission. And now this morning, Lord, with your blessing upon the word, may we read it and may it do something. May it change our lives. May we no longer leave this morning as we were, but something about the word of God. will be at the right time for us in our lives to change us and to conditionally put us to where we need to be. Lord, I thank you for this honor to read your word in Jesus's marvelous mighty name. Amen. And so we look at Luke chapter 3. Here Jesus came to deliver the good news of salvation. for all the people. And it speaks of how John prepared the way for Jesus's mission. Now in the 15th year, the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, being governor of Judea and Herod, being Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother, Philip Tetrarch of Ithuria, and of the region of Trachonias and Lysaeus, The Techrat of Abilene, Ananias, and Cassiphas, being the high priest, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, in verse 3, and he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, saying, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooks shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Now, at just the right moment, God sent his son. Boy, I think God, you know what? History tells the story. And Luke the writer is giving us a history lesson, an introduction to the book. of the account of Jesus's life and he assured us that here that it's been carefully investigated everything in order to write an orderly sequence to give the readers and I'm glad that here that the political religious leaders that they would accomplish that purpose because Luke is providing that clear setting in history for Jesus's ministry. God sent Jesus at a Pacific and a well-planned time that God knew exactly what he was doing and when he was doing it, although God had no beginning and no end. He has placed us in a well-ordered time today with events that unfold according to his timing. And by providing these historical details, Luke placed his narrative in the context of history. showing the concern for the historical accuracy. Luke does this in these verses to remind every one of us this morning of the fleeting nature of the political and religious leaders in the contrast to the nature of God. Don't we see it in America today? Boy, we wonder, we ask ourselves, how did people vote for these people? How can they be a Christian and even vote for these? You know, I question it, but I'm nobody. But I do wonder, even people that I've been around all my life, that they could vote for leaders like these. And you know what? Even if we're talking about leaders, they ain't a single leader in the entire world. Even the ones that are running on any place or vote anywhere in the world can compare to the leadership of God. The first person They say Tiberius of Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire, and from there the list moves on to Pontius Pilate. And it looks to all of these levels of these people in their lives, of these political leaders, amen. And you know what? Even though that they're influential characters, like John the Baptist, that has a uniqueness that began long before the moment began to preach because I'm glad that his mother and father Zacharias and Elizabeth loved the Lord and yet they were without a child, which in that culture was often seen as a sign of divine displeasure. But I'm glad in the middle of his priestly duties, a priest who had got older and he received a visit from the angel that told him, despite he and his wife ages and how old they were, they were going to have a son. Good Lord have mercy. Hallelujah. Flip back and jump and praise God, knowing that somebody I know out of a big family, I remember back when my youngest aunt and she's already passed away, but they couldn't have kids for years. And all of a sudden she come up pregnant. Why, man, her husband thought she done cheated on him. But you know what? It was theirs. God can do some miraculous things. And I'm glad that the angel said many things about that boy, that he's going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen. And he would be responsible for turning people back to God. And we need that today. We need people turned back to God. The angel said that this child would be great in the sight of God. And so You skip forward several years, and we find that as a prophet, the word of God came to John, and I'm glad that it multiplied. He moved out into the middle of the desert, and he lived as a hermit, and he wore clothes made out of Campbell's hair. And man, he ate locusts, amen. He even went so far as insulting people of great importance of his day. Amen. He didn't matter. It wasn't nothing. Praise God. I'm telling you, he called the Pharisees the religious leaders of the region. And all of a sudden, he said they were like snakes and worse than that. And so he rebuked one of them for marrying the brother's wife, which got him thrown into prison and eventually executed because he was committed to the commandments of God. And though strange and maybe even crazy, John was very clear about his purpose in life. He was born and lived for the one reason alone, and that was to prepare the way of the Lord. Amen. Salvation is always available to everybody. That's what we read in these verses. And he came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. How Luke placed the narrative in a human history by listing all of the leaders of the time, and Luke entered Jesus as a rival in that divine history, praise God. Boy, John the Baptist was ushering in a new era in salvation history, praise God, hallelujah. And I'm glad that when John began to baptize people in a call to repentance, he wasn't just asking them to admit their sin. John the Baptist was meant to be an outward sign that pointed to an inward change of the heart. And when John saw people coming to be baptized but not acting in accordance with their repentance, then he rebuked them. And so, as we see of the word of God that it tells us, amen. Here these leaders, Tiberius, Caesar, Pontius Pilate to the left, to the right there was Herod, the Techar of Galilee, and then there was Philip, the brother of the Techar. And so, of this time and season, of the area that they were in, amen, of all of this that we see, he was in this area right in here. Lastly, when it began to talk about here with the brother of Philip, the Techrant. And so when we look at this, Eurea, the area of all of this, of that ministry that was transpiring, we see the mission of John the Baptist and the message was about Jesus, praise God. Hallelujah. And so when we look, we go on and he tells us also about in Luke chapter four, that he skips on ahead. and how that Isaiah prophesied the purpose of Jesus' mission here. In verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, as his custom was. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath. They stood up for to read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written in verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor and sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and to recover the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And so out of all of this that John the Baptist was doing here, where we see that the mission had been formed by God's word. John didn't search until he found a cause that captured his imagination. His mission was firmly rooted in the unchanging word of God. And on mission, he understood in light of Jesus's mission. Amen. He accepted that his life was subject to Jesus's life and his mission was therefore only a smaller component of Jesus's mission. We must do the same, you and I, men and women of God. We must not trick ourselves into thinking that we can somehow live with passion and meaning in a way that doesn't fall in line with who Jesus is and what he came to do. The pathway to true significance is only found in the shadow of Jesus's life, his death, his resurrection, as we're getting nearer and closer to Christmas on into the future, but Easter this March. March the last Sunday will be Easter and so we see the way being prepared and out of that reading that Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. Here the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus's mission is what Luke is telling us and we look and we see that Jesus had spent 40 days In the wilderness as he was baptized he was tempted by the devil and the Holy Spirit had been with Jesus when he created the earth back in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 And John chapter 1 verses 1, 2, and 3. And the Holy Spirit was with Jesus when he came to redeem the earth. And the book of Luke recorded the presence of the Holy Spirit at key moments in the beginning of Jesus's mission. At Jesus's baptism, the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove unto him. In the wilderness, he was full of the Holy Ghost. He returned there from Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil. And then as he began his ministry, Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee is what we read. Luke begins by emphasizing the teaching and the aspect of Jesus's ministry. Jesus was a great teacher and his followers often referred to him as the teacher or the rabbi. But a good teacher helps us to understand the truth. about something. Jesus doesn't just know the truth. Jesus is the truth. And no wonder the people were amazed by his teaching. People are still amazed by his teaching. And today we take the time to read his words. And there are also people today that want to praise Jesus as a great teacher, but they don't want to submit completely to his authority. And that's where they failed. Because these people fail to believe that Jesus is the Son of God or the Messiah anointed by God. And this study declares Jesus himself the Messiah. As we look and realize that the Lord is so good to us. Jesus knew his mission. Jesus knew exactly what he wanted to share when he stood up to read out of Isaiah 61. He unrolled the scroll, he located the verses, and he knew the scripture, and he knew how the scripture applied to him. And so the verses from Isaiah 61 aren't Isaiah speaking about himself as a prophet, but about the Messiah, God's anointed one, speaking about his mission. Jesus's mission included preaching the gospel to the poor in verse 18, preaching deliverance to the captives in verse 18, recovering the sight to the blind in verse 18, amen, setting at liberty them that are bruised in verse 18, preaching the acceptable year of the Lord in verse 19. Jesus healed many, and he even raised some from the dead. But that was the only start of everything. The good news is that Jesus offers healing and restoration, both now and for eternity, both physical and spiritual. And Jesus said that he had come to preach the acceptable time of the year. In Isaiah, the year of Jubilee, as recorded in Leviticus, chapter 25, verses 8 through 55, God's law called for time like this, a time of jubilee, the year of the Lord that is recorded, that it would be a time once every 50 years when debts would be canceled, when slaves would be freed. But once again, Jesus' good news went far, far beyond the temporary and the physical. Jesus had come to cancel our sin, our sin debts, and free us from the slavery of sin. The time had come and the year of the Lord's favor had arrived. Amen. And I'm glad that he clarifies his mission. Later on in Luke chapter four, he says, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities. Also, therefore, am I sent. Jesus was inaugurating God's kingdom on earth as in heaven. And I'm glad that when every one of us, when we give sight to the blind, we all have been blinded by our sin. Each of us convinced that our own way is good and right. We need our eyes open to the truth of our rebellion and God's great mercy by which we can be forgiven for our sin and be restored to him. When we set the oppressed free, true freedom is not doing whatever our sinful nature desires. This is the insidious nature of sin, tricking us into believing that slavery is actually freedom. True freedom means living rightly with God and each other, free to love and to serve God with our whole hearts. And then not only giving the sight to the blind and setting the oppressed free, but proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor because here the Messiah had finally come. Praise his mighty name. and is there one of the greatest blessings God could show on the earth, the providing way of reconciliation to him. Despite our sin and rebellion, God's great favor rests on us in that he has bridged the gap back to him, praise God. When we proclaim freedom for the prisoners, every human is a prisoner of sin and death, incapable of freeing themselves. And we all need a rescuer who can break the chains of our own making and bring us into the glorious freedom as the children of God. Amen. Boy, I tell you, Jesus is that expected Messiah. I'm glad Jesus is that unexpected Messiah. The crowd shifted abruptly because even though they expected the Messiah, they didn't expect this kind of Messiah. The crowd in Nazareth assumed many things about Jesus and his mission. They assumed that he would be a political leader. They assumed that he was a savior of Israel and correspondably that he was the conqueror of their enemies. But Jesus is the savior who challenges our assumptions. And I'm glad that the crowd in the synagogue that day loved that pronouncement. Of course they did. They were bearing witness of that which generations, generations had waited upon, had waited upon. And here it's finally happened. The promise of the one of God, the Messiah. He had come from their own small town of Nazareth. But amazingly, if we look and read the rest of this, we see the crowd's attitude begin to change. How sad. Though they began with excitement and joy, they ended with anger and violence, and attempted to throw Jesus to his death from the hilltop outside of town. Can you imagine? We wonder what exactly happened, but how could the attitude change so drastically if Jesus truly was the Messiah? When we encounter Jesus, we can't try to bend him into a version of himself that's more to our liking. Instead, all of our assumptions, all of our preferences, and all of our desires must be brought under his lordship. And so, lastly, as we continue on in the word of God, amen, we see the mission of Jesus. And in a Nazareth synagogue and in numerous synagogues to come, It says in verse one, and he closed the book. What? The book of Isaiah, the scroll. And he gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fasting on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Jesus declared that he is the long awaited Messiah. We can trust that Jesus is who he says he is. just as it was Jesus' custom to go to the synagogue regularly. I imagine many of the people listening to him and coming to the synagogue all of their lives. And news had spread about Jesus, some in the synagogue, but many had been wondering if this man was the promised one that they had been waiting for. So when Jesus selected this scripture to read, the people must have been on the edge of their seats. Woo! Praise God. What would he say about these verses? Would he confirm their hopes? The eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue, they were fastened on him. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. Listen, and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Oh, don't miss that. Luke says that, listen, Luke says that Jesus began to say, and it implies the beginning of a sermon, that Luke records. Jesus gave a sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. This day, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Oh my goodness, the year of the Lord's favor has arrived. The Messiah, the one anointed by the Holy Spirit of God, once sent by God, has brought it. Hallelujah! Jesus has declared that he was the Messiah. Luke's purpose for writing The account of Jesus' life was to give every one of us, he said, the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. One of the ways that Luke sought to provide a certainty was by highlighting the fulfillment of prophecy out of the book of Isaiah. And I'm glad that by showing how all the significant events of God's, of the Lord's life, of Jesus's life, his death, his resurrection had been prophesied beforehand. Luke reassured his readers that God is always in control. And even when the plan isn't going as we expect it to this year of election, and how nervous that is to know that some of these other crazy people that you've known all your life can vote so stupidly and inaccurately, Because somehow or another, I mean, I'm not judging any of them, but if they went by the things of God, how could they have done it? Huh? I'll never understand people. But I'm going to tell you, access for as a truth against the holy child Jesus whom God has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate as it goes on into the people of Israel will gather together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before us to be done basically what I'm saying, God's sovereign. And no matter what happens, God is still in control. Trust in all that he does, all that he says, because Jesus declared that he is the long awaited Messiah. Praise God. In numerous synagogues that he spoke, Jesus read from Isaiah 61. Yes, the mission is Jesus. Jesus's mission and our mission that we see Through, can we learn several things about God's character? Yes, we can. God's loving and compassionate. Jesus came to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to set the captives free, to give sight to the blind as it goes on. God is just and righteous. Amen. Amen. Jesus declared that he came to proclaim the acceptable time of the year, referring to the year of Ghibli. God's faithful and trustworthy. He fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, showing that God's faithful to his promises, that he can be trusted, and that through Jesus, we see that God's plan and timing are perfect, and he's always faithful and trustworthy, and that God is inclusive, and he offers salvation to all. Jesus came to bring salvation not only to the Jews, but all people. all those poor, everybody. And I didn't highlight it, but fifthly, God is sovereign and in control because Jesus's mission was part of God's plan from the very begin that he was sent and empowered by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate God's sovereignty and his ability to work in all things. Praise God. So. We see. That as the promises that as believers that we can all count on. We can count on the promise of salvation. Believers trust in the promise that through faith in Jesus, they will be saved and have eternal life. John 3, 16, Romans 10, 9. The second promise of God that believers can count on is the forgiveness of sins. Believers rely on the promise that if they confess their sins, God is faithful just to forgive them and cleanse us from all unrighteousness in 1 John 1, 9. The second of the list of God's promises that I wrote down as believers that we can count on is guidance and wisdom. Believers trust in the promise that if they seek God's wisdom and guidance, he'll direct their paths in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, James 1, 5. The other of the promises of God, number 4, God's promise of provision. Believers rely on the promise that God will provide for their needs and his riches in glory. Philippians 4.19, Matthew 6, verses 25 down to verse 34. And lastly, The list of promises that I wrote for all believers to have is that promise of comfort and peace. Believers count on the promise that God will be with them in their time of trouble, will give them peace. That surpasses all understanding in Psalms 23 and Philippians 4, 7. The assessment of the good news of salvation. That is Jesus's mission to deliver that good news of salvation to all people that we must about the same take an assessment of your life. And are there any groups of people who you consider off limits from the message of the gospel? If so, pray and repent because there is nobody. I don't care how vulgar they are. I don't care if they're same-sex involved and all the other junk that's out there that's against the words, the teaching of the Bible. We're to go out to all of them and send the love of Jesus, witness and testimony to reach them before it's too late. And a mission statement that all of us, the purpose of our mission, that we take the account of our personal gifts and our talents and our ambitions. And remember that we fall in the shadow of Jesus's mission. We're out about his mission, the Father's business. And the summary is how comfortable are you with sharing the good news with others? The Holy Spirit will speak when you don't even know how to speak. There'll be times that you may not know what to say, but it's the utterance of the Holy Spirit that will speak through you. Now, as I close out the power of prayer, I close out now with my prayer, and I want you to join me. Lord, you're my lamp, the one that illuminates all of our darkness. Thank you for your work in our life. As we deliver to be inspired and to accomplish something that will impact the lives of many others. Help us to deliver your message without interruption for the many times that we can reach down and take hold of the word of God and share it. deliver us out of our deep waters and our many deliverance that they will be the faith that will inspire others, Lord, as the preachers and the men and women of God have that strong faith that no matter what happens to their health, to their family or whatever, they write the prettiest songs. They continue to hum with a voice that is shot. But Lord, they continue to go forward with the mission. Teach in the rest of all your power. that we may rest and trust and bring people to you in the presence of the Lord. Draw strength, Lord, I pray for those ones that are strong, that they may influence in your sovereignty during these times when life doesn't make sense and we don't even understand all that's taking place. We just step out on your faith and trust you no matter what. We see that's happening in the world because you're still in control. We thank you for saving us by your marvelous grace in Jesus's marvelous mighty name. Amen. Thank you for this and for closing out with us, because you know what? Each and every one of us, when we look, the mission was possible. The mission of Jesus. On a human level, both John and Jesus's missions were impossible. Only through God could they accomplish their purpose. and drawing on these passages that gave them the ability. You know what? My wife hit a deer and it totaled out the car that had been paid for for years. So we had to go through the heartache of going and either finding a used one or close to a new one and start all over again because of the damage of that vehicle that that deer did. And what I'm trying to say is we may be broken, but we've been made new. People buy new cars for a reason or used ones and they're new or maybe, you know, everything new about the car. I got a truck, a used truck, and boy, I got that thing. The next thing you know, my man, somebody backs into it. Next thing you know, I'm parked somewhere, somebody keys it. You know, and I'm somewheres where nobody don't know me. It ain't particularly about me. It's just how people are today. They're so evil. But you know, when those things happen to our vehicles or whatever, it's a flaw. But over time, more and more stains, maybe we drop coffee on the seats, more and more scratches gradually appear. The older that our vehicles get, the more nicks and dings that appear. Over time, every car owner accepts the state that the car is in and they just learn to live with all of those flaws as I will with this one that I got for Lita and I. When we do that with our lives, you know, I've been had people tell me I've been cursed because my vehicle's got. Hey, I'm a child of the king. You can curse me all you want to, but I'm under his authority and his protection. Praise God. But listen, We do that with our lives because over time, we just accept the state and we learn to live with all of those flaws. We try to fix what we can, but we have areas of our lives that seem permanently broken too. We just assume that we have to learn to live with our brokenness. But as long as we live in a sinful, broken state, we will die in a broken state. God has a better plan. We cannot fix our brokenness, but we can through the death of Jesus. He forgives and he removes our sin. This is the ultimatum of this story. Through the resurrection of Jesus, as Easter is coming up this March, he transforms all of us and he gives us a new life. And if you would like to have a new life in Christ, Repent of your sins and put your faith in him and admit to God that you are a sinner. Turn from the sin that has kept you from God and accept Jesus's gift of forgiveness. Confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Faith is the substance of hopeful things, hopeful, the evidence of things not seen. Express your repentance and faith by praying something like this as we close out. Dear God, I know I'm a sinner, and I believe Jesus died on the cross to forgive me of my sins. I'm sorry for all the wrong that I've done, and I ask you to forgive me. And I now accept your gift of eternal life. Thank you for the forgiveness and for a new life in Jesus Christ. And from this day, this morning forward, I choose to follow you in Jesus's name. Amen. I hope and pray that you go and share this decision with somebody, with your pastor, with a close friend, and let them know that you just accepted Jesus Christ here on March the 3rd, 2024, the 23rd of Adar 1, 5784 of the Hebrew calendar. It's all about Jesus, the mission of Jesus. May God bless you.